Applying Skills of Leadership

As a former musician of the OTHS Marching Panthers, I know that an individual part in the band can sound strange if playing alone. It is only when an instrument’s part is blended with other instruments in the band that the great sound of the band emerges. The same can be said for each of the individual skills of leadership. Each functions well only when combined with the others to produce an effective leadership style.

An individual skill of leadership is seldom able to stand alone. Used in concert like a band, each complements the other and the rest can be greater than the sum of the parts. In counseling, for example, one must first evaluate the needs and characteristics of the individual to be counseled and the resources that are available. This involves clear communication, an element of control, and setting a good example of representing your groups needs to the person and vise versa. An effective teaching situation will probably involve all your leadership skills. In our band, the French horns were often silent, and sometimes played solo passages, but more often add a richness and harmonic variety to the whole band. The same applies to other instruments, and of course to the balance of leadership skills.

Participants in leadership or management training often go back home to make dramatic changes in leadership styles, using new skills they have learned. A disaster usually results. Leadership skills and management training are not designed to cause a dramatic change, yet rather to help someone fine-tune the skills they already have.

If something runs, don’t fix it!  Yet almost anything can be made to run a little more smoothly with some minor adjustments.  I, myself, got a Mentor to help. A skilled mechanic seldom adjusts more than one thing at a time. This is the only way they can find out if the adjustment produces the desired results. The wise use of the skills of leadership will result in an improvement if applied subtly and discreetly over a long period of time.

Avoid the temptation to oversimplify by asking the leader to identify a problem and one or two skills of leadership that could be used in its solution. Leadership skills simply don’t work that way. Think of it like my Marching Band, they must be used in concert with each other.